How to Apply Composition Techniques to Your Wedding Photography
We can learn about photography composition techniques and we can learn about wedding photography, but how do we combine the two lessons into real world application?
As a wedding photographer, it’s easy to be so focused on capturing all the photos of all the things that you forget to compose the photo. Composition means putting together the photograph and arranging the elements in the scene.
It can be hard to imagine how you are going to arrange a photograph in a situation where you have very little control such as a wedding. And I’m not going to suggest that you try to control anything. Instead, you’re going to reposition yourself and your camera until the elements in your photo appear where you want them to.
Let’s dive into some of the popular composition techniques and how you can utilize them in your wedding photography. It’s both simple and challenging but one thing is for certain, being able to intentionally create photographs will turn your snapshots into art.
Photography Composition Techniques
We are going to learn to apply the following photography composition techniques to wedding photography. You might challenge yourself by picking one at a time to intentionally focus on until you find yourself naturally and instinctively utilizing them. Composition techniques will improve your photographs simply by causing you to be more intentional.
Leading lines
Negative space
Fill the frame
Depth of field
Rule of thirds
Contrast
Repetition and pattern
Leading Lines
I’m choosing to start with leading lines only because it’s one of my favorite techniques. I loved learning about perspective in art class, there was something magical about drawing a road that disappears into the horizon. Leading lines can add more depth and movement to a photo and they can point to your subject and draw the viewer’s eyes wherever you want them to go.
Leading lines are very visually satisfying to me and fairly easy to utilize in your wedding photography, all you have to do is start to recognize them. Roads, bridges, railings, walls, windows, and doors can all become leading lines that point the viewer’s eye to your subject. One of the most obvious wedding leading lines is the ceremony aisle.
Use leading lines such as the ceremony aisle to point the viewer to your subject and add depth and movement to your images.
Negative Space
Another easy composition technique that can drastically improve your photos is negative space. Often wedding days are busy and cluttered and if you’re not careful all of your photos will end up busy and cluttered too. Maybe a busy scene is ok for a cocktail hour shot but sometimes a clean backdrop and negative space around your subject will make the image more impactful.
Leading lines draw your eye to the subject, negative space leaves plenty of breathing room around your subject so the view has an undistracted viewing experience. If you find that your wedding photos are too cluttered or busy, creating negative space will help you instead create clean undistracted images. Sometimes, creating negative space is as simple as changing your body position so that instead of seeing all the stuff on the table the subject is photographed against a blank wall.
Use negative space to give your subject more breathing room — change your angle so that instead of seeing clutter, the viewer is given an undistracted and clean image of your subject. Read More...
